flexible learning in ACE
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Jobsearch Skills online training for the deaf and hearing impaired
This scenario illustrates how a a major agency has met the needs of a particular client group - the deaf and hearing impaired by offering the Jobsearch Skills online training module.
RecruitNet
Career Skills
Since 1984 RecruitNet Career Skills has provided quality training and employment services for people who are disadvantaged in the Labour Market.
The organisation operates from 9 locations: Box Hill, Collingwood, St. Kilda Road, Brunswick, Thornbury, Thomastown, Reservoir, Cranbourne and Moe, ensuring a broad geographic coverage. These services have predominantly been provided in partnership with State and Federal Governments through a variety of funded Labour Market Programs.
RecruitNet provides training and support services to assist people to obtain and keep employment. Services include:
- Disability employment ~ Whitehorse Employment Access
- Literacy and numeracy training
- Traineeship training
- Work for the Dole programs
- Community Work Coordination
- ComIT – computer recycling
- Adult Community and Further Education
- Skills.net
- Career Outplacement
In evaluating useful courses for our client group to access, the Disability Unit looked at the difficulties facing our participants and found that dependence on others impacted their quality of life significantly. A strategy was devised to address this significant barrier and they came up with a course that would give participants freedom, basic computer and internet skills, show them how to research, assess, engage and produce, quite independently of another person.
The
outcome required was to enable hearing-impaired clients to learn how to
apply for jobs using the online medium without having to enlist the aid
of an interpreter.
The RecruitNet Career Skills’ Project Team downloaded a shell course from TAFEVC and customised the content, language and activities to make it accessible and relevant to the needs of unemployed people with disabilities in their endeavours to gain employment through the use of the internet and e-learning.
During September/October 2001 a pilot group of 9 clients of Whitehorse Employment Access undertook the 20 hour course in RecruitNet’s Computer Training Centre in Box Hill.
The aims of this course were:
- To introduce participants to on-line education and raise their awareness of the opportunities afforded by this rapidly developing medium
- To
use this medium to develop computer skills and job search skills
(Career Planning; Resume writing; Job Applications; Interview skills) - To trial this new course in order to gain feedback and suggestions from the pilot group before launching the course publicly on the TAFEVC Platform.
Each participant had access to an individual, Internet-linked computer, as well as the assistance of Employment Consultants and Interpreters (for the 5 Deaf participants).
Emphasis was on practicality, relevance to each particular client, and patient repetition to ensure that each client was able to perform each task alone.
They were required to find an advertisement, dissect it, compare their skills and write a letter, showcasing those skills with only minimal editing being required. For a hearing impaired client this is very difficult as their first language is not English, but Auslan.
All clients completed the course, confident and informed, with one client being interviewed and obtaining a job from a letter he had written himself during the course and using the interview skills he had just learned.
Whitehorse Employment Access (WEA), an open employment service outlet since 1991,has consistently demonstrated significant skills and experience in assisting people with disabilities, in particular Deaf and Hearing Impaired people, to gain and maintain employment.
In accordance with the Company’s commitment to improved customer service, the staff of WEA are constantly investigating ways to assist their clients integrate more fully and easily into society, and are eager to find opportunities for people with a disability to participate in education or learning programs available in the community.
During 2001 the skills and experience of RecruitNet staff working in both the Disability service and the IT Training area combined to develop and implement an on-line (Internet-based) training program customised to the special needs of people with a disability:
To our knowledge, this is the only jobsearch module available online for people with a disability.
“Thank
you for having new computers and having terrific teachers.
The Interpreters for the deaf students did their part supurb.”
“I hope this course to lead a future of success.”
“I’m
very enjoy this course. The course is teaching me
in computer way and how to practise for interview.”
“I enjoy about computer. Internet good.”
“Get information and jobseeker skills and very good.”
“The staff were helpful and interpreters great.”
“It gives me more confidence”
“Builded up my confidence, learn in some areas I haven’t thought before.”
Evaluations showed that this type of learning independence is highly valued and based on this evidence, we have continued to offer it annually.
